1. Age of the Railroads Ch. 6-2

2. The First Transcontinental Railroad
The Union Pacific and Central Pacific established the “First” transcontinental railroad when they met at Promontory, Utah on May 10, 1869.

3. It wasn’t the first transcontinental Railroad because it did not join East and West by a continuous rail. Up until 1872, people had to get off the train and get in a boat to cross the Missouri River and then hop back on another train.
Strasburg, (aka Comanche Crossing) Colorado is the location of the real First transcontinental rail completed in August of 1870.

5. Working on the railroad…
The Central Pacific (West) employed thousands of Chinese immigrants. The Union Pacific (East) employed Irish immigrants.
More than 2,000 workers lost their lives and more than 20,000 were injured.

6. Railroad Time
Every city used to have its own time, thus making it difficult to find out what time it really was.
1869, Professor C. W. Dowd proposed that the earth be divided into 24 different time zones.
In 1883, railroads and towns across the country synchronized their clocks.
In 1884, worldwide time zones were established.
The United States Congress did not adopt railroad times as the official standard of time until 1918.

7. Pullman and the Pullman Strike
Pullman built sleeper cars for the rail companies. In doing so he also provided housing for his workers by making a small town outside of the company.
He lowered the workers wages but not their rents and he tried to control certain aspects of their rights by not allowing them to drink alcohol or loiter on their front doorsteps.

8. The Grange
The Grange was a farmers’ organization that demanded governmental control over the railroad industry.
The Railroads fixed prices and charged different customers different rates to transport their goods.
GRANGER LAWS- established rates to prohibit discrimination
Munn v. Illinois-court decision that allowed the state to to regulate railroads.

9. Interstate Commerce Act- a state cannot set rates on state to state business.It also established the ICC (Interstate Commerce Commission) which supervised railroad activities from state to state.